{"id":572372,"date":"2026-01-20T11:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=572372"},"modified":"2026-01-20T11:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:02:51","slug":"zootechnician-integrated-the-science-of-animal-welfare-into-livestock-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/zootechnician-integrated-the-science-of-animal-welfare-into-livestock-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Zootechnician integrated the science of animal welfare into livestock farming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carla Glarner<\/span>Paranhos da Costa\u2019s work had a truly global impactCarla Glarner<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Mateus Jos\u00e9 Rodrigues Paranhos da Costa, a pioneer of animal welfare science in Brazil, passed away on July 5 at age 68 in Franca, S\u00e3o Paulo. Since 1986, he had been a faculty researcher in the Department of Animal Science at S\u00e3o Paulo State University\u2019s School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences (FCAV-UNESP), in Jaboticabal. He is widely known for his work bridging cutting-edge animal science with in-the-field livestock practices, advancing a more conscientious and sustainable model of cattle ranching.<\/p>\n

\u201cMateus placed Brazil at the forefront of animal behavior science,\u201d said British biologist Donald Broom in an interview with Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em>. \u201cHe was an exceptional communicator, and at multiple major international conferences he presented influential papers on how to effectively engage ranchers in animal welfare research.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1986, Broom\u2014now 82\u2014became the first professor to teach a university course formally titled \u201canimal welfare,\u201d at the University of Cambridge in the UK. In 1992, Paranhos da Costa invited him to deliver a keynote at the 10th<\/sup> Meeting of Ethology, hosted by UNESP in Jaboticabal. \u201cThat was when I realized he was already exploring multiple aspects of welfare, including ways to mitigate issues reported by cattle handlers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among Paranhos da Costa\u2019s most cited works is a 2012 paper in Meat Science<\/em>, which analyzed technical, legislative, and policy initiatives across Latin America designed to advance animal welfare in ranching, with an emphasis on efforts addressing worker training and the development of best-practice guidelines for livestock management. \u201cIn Brazil, more than 10 million kilograms of beef are lost each year because of carcass bruising from falls, blows, or slips\u2014losses that could be prevented with more careful handling,\u201d he explained to Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> in the feature \u201cCare and empathy for animals<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his Meat Science<\/em> article, Paranhos da Costa noted that livestock handling is most successful when the well-being of workers is also considered. \u201cImproving animal welfare also improves human welfare,\u201d he remarked while wrapping up his presentation at a 2018 workshop in S\u00e3o Paulo, hosted by UNESP, with US researcher Temple Grandin as feature speaker. On that occasion, he was awarded the Temple Grandin Award, a distinction recognizing scientists and professionals who have advanced animal welfare, particularly in cattle ranching.<\/p>\n

Grandin, an emeritus professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and a psychologist and animal scientist by training, revolutionized livestock handling methods on farms and in slaughterhouses. She has published widely in the field\u2014most recently, a February article exploring insights from nonverbal communication in nonhuman mammals. \u201cProfessor Mateus was a leader who inspired students to engage in hands-on, applied research aimed at improving the welfare of cattle and many other animals,\u201d she told Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Born in Franca, Paranhos da Costa earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in Animal Science from FCAV in 1981. He went on to complete a PhD in Psychobiology at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Ribeir\u00e3o Preto campus in 1995, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in animal welfare at the University of Cambridge in 1999. At FCAV, he founded and led the Study and Research Group in Ethology and Animal Ecology (ETCO) in 1992. Over time, ETCO became a reference for science-based livestock management, with more than 120 peer-reviewed articles to its name.<\/p>\n

As Fernanda Macitelli\u2014an animal scientist at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) and associate researcher at ETCO\u2014recalls, Paranhos da Costa and his students at UNESP coauthored 12 livestock handling manuals, now distributed to farmers by Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA). These guides cover key areas such as vaccination, cattle loading, comfort for lactating cows, and animal identification. \u201cMateus worked tirelessly to raise awareness about reducing the use of hot-iron branding,\u201d Macitelli notes. Thanks to his advocacy, in 2024 S\u00e3o Paulo became the first state to replace hot-iron facial branding of cattle and buffalo vaccinated against brucellosis with ear tags certifying vaccination.<\/p>\n

\u201cMateus was also the researcher most deeply engaged with animal welfare in transport across Brazil,\u201d adds veterinarian Adroaldo Jos\u00e9 Zanella, who heads the Center for Comparative Studies in Health, Sustainability, and Welfare at USP\u2019s School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science (FMVZ). \u201cHis work reshaped public policy and was pivotal in establishing the current legal framework for animal welfare in Brazil,\u201d he explains. Among these contributions is National Traffic Council Resolution No. 791 (2020), which consolidated regulations governing the transport of livestock and other animals used in production, sport, leisure, or exhibition.<\/p>\n

Between 2009 and 2010, Paranhos da Costa also served as a visiting researcher at the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Italian veterinarian Daniela Battaglia\u2014who heads the FAO’s Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare and coproduces FAOcast, an animal welfare podcast\u2014told Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> that the Brazilian scientist\u2019s expertise significantly strengthened FAO\u2019s mission to improve the lives of both animals and people: \u201cHis seminal research, vision, and passionate advocacy helped shape the global understanding of animal welfare as an integral part of sustainable livestock production and of the One Health framework.\u201d One Health is an integrated approach that recognizes the interdependence between human, animal, and environmental health.<\/p>\n

Paranhos da Costa was also renowned as a capable mentor. \u201cMany of his former students now hold key positions in Brazil and abroad in the field of animal welfare,\u201d notes Zanella. Daiana de Oliveira, professor of Farm Animal Welfare at Linnaeus University in Sweden, highlights his distinctive teaching style: \u201cAs a lecturer, he didn\u2019t use slides and instead captivated students with compelling stories; as a supervisor, he proposed thought-provoking challenges and fostered scientific debates with leading international scholars, opening doors for us to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paranhos da Costa was receiving treatment for a recurrence of intestinal cancer when he had COVID. He is survived by his wife, Janete; his children, Paula, Mariana, and Gabriel; and three granddaughters.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “Well-being for all<\/strong>” in issue 354 of August\/2025.<\/p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mateus Paranhos da Costa devoted his research to balancing livestock productivity with quality of life for animals","protected":false},"author":756,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1348],"tags":[230,266],"coauthors":[5012],"class_list":["post-572372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituary","tag-ethics","tag-zoology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576756,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572372\/revisions\/576756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572372"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=572372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}